a blog that is authored by Matt but is yours and the tea's as much as it is his

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

An Autumnal Teacup by Kim Dae Woong

This cup was a gift by the artist. It is the gift of the wood fired kiln, of Earth, of Fire. How appropriate is it to sip tea from its gritty, uncut innards on an cool autumn day?

Its shape is slightly oblong, warped, imperfect, so too is the coming of fall- it never comes smoothly but rather unevenly until it gives in to the cold of winter. This cup embodies the struggle of warm and cool, its colour splotches of warm reds, oranges, earthy notes- colours of fall. There are large swaths of black and browns also- the cold of winter when trees are bare.

The texture of the cup is cold like a rock- with eyes closed you'd swear it was. Its toughness is only confirmed by its scars from the kiln- a scratch here, a blotch there. Despite these crude features, the cup is extraordinarily lightweight and its walls excessively thin. Done to balance these harder features, it seems a bit too obvious.

Sipping Korean yellow tea from it on a cool autumn afternoon seems about right.

Very nice cup. Reminds me a lot of some Bizen cups I have that I use for Gyokuro. http://lh4.ggpht.com/_Ig5JW2vCr8I/TMk9RfnhR4I/AAAAAAAABFQ/-ce0x95lNgg/s640/Bizen%20guinomi%203.jpghttp://lh4.ggpht.com/_Ig5JW2vCr8I/TMk9RYxVwVI/AAAAAAAABFU/quBz9jTIVrI/s640/Bizen%20guinomi%206.jpg

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